Always extremely meticulous in his research, Michener wrote Tales of the South Pacific from his personal experience during World War II. A. Grove Days states that Michener thought of his South Pacific stories as a novel unified by "strong" themes, by a "changing but limited setting around the Pacific islands," and by a number of "recurring figures." The nineteen stories, which climax in the tale "The Landing on Kuralei," have three narrators: a first-person officer-narrator who tells thirteen of the stories; Lieutenant Bus Adams, who narrates two stories; and an omniscient narrator, who relates four tales.